This application claims priority of Korea patent Application No. 2000-51636, filed on Sep. 1, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an airbag door of a vehicle which is designed to prevent the breakage of the windshield usually resulted from a direct contact with an airbag door when said airbag door is deployed upon a vehicle collision.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many vehicles have been provided with airbags as a way to protect passengers as well as drivers from a possible automotive vehicle accident. The conventional airbags, however, have not been considered very advantageous in that the airbag doors 10 which encompass those airbags often damage the windshield 18 of a vehicle when said airbag doors are torn away as the airbags are deployed as for example shown in FIG. 4. One way to prevent the breakage of the windshield 18 is to mount a regulating device 16 to control the angle of airbag deployment on both sides of the airbag door 10 so that angle of deployment can be kept within a certain degree as shown in FIG. 5. Moreover, the central part of an airbag door 10 is cut open so that said airbag door 10 can avoid contacting the windshield 18 thus preventing the breakage of said windshield 18 as shown in FIG. 6. However, the mounting of said regulating device that can control the deployment angle of airbag door in FIG. 5 is very difficult and also those devices are usually unable to tolerate the pressure delivered by the deploying airbag. Moreover, the fact that the conventional airbags in FIG. 6 are deployed as the airbag doors are torn open in the center undermines the directional control of the airbag deployment in that the airbag deployment may not be directed toward a passenger when there is a vehicle collision.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide an airbag door of a vehicle characterized by having a dual safety mechanism comprising 1) a plate spring beneath the internal surface of said airbag door with a restoring force to be rolled up and also 2) multiple evenly spaced grooves formed in the lower part of said airbag door so that said airbag door can be rolled up along the grooves when said airbag door is deployed, thus preventing windshield breakage resulting from a direct contact with an airbag door when said airbag door is deployed due to a vehicle collision.